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Thursday, November 21, 2013

Court asks state: Why King's Torah authors not indicted?

The High Court of Justice on Wednesday evening ordered
Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to explain why he has not idicted the authors
of “Torat Hamelech” (The King's Torah), Rabbis Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef
Elitzur, and Rabbis Dov Lior and Yitzhak Ginsburg, who granted rabbinic
approbation to the book, for sedition, incitement to racism and incitement to
violence.

The court injunction came following a legal debate over a
petition filed jointly by the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive
Judaism, 12 Heshvan: Promoting Tolerance in an Orthodox Context, the Kolech
Religious Women’s Forum and others who demanded the prosecution of the book’s
authors for incitement and racism. The injunction calls on Weinstein to explain
why they have not been prosecuted and why the police does not confiscate copies
of the book until the issue is settled in court.

Weinstein is also called on to
explain why Lior is not subject to a disciplinary hearing for his statements,
and why he has not been suspended from his position as the rabbi of Kiryat
Arba. Weinstein and the rabbis have two and a half months to respond to the
injunction.

During the court hearing the State Prosecutor's Office
disclosed that it recently served notice to the managers of the “Hakol
Hayehudi” (Jewish Voice) website, Avraham Binyamin and Joshua Hess, that they
would be prosecuted, subject to a hearing, for incitement to violence and
racism. This decision was reached with Weinstein's approval.

According to the charges, the website is suspected of
posting inciteful content directed at Palestinians and Israeli Arabs between
August 2009 and February 2012. In addition to the Internet, this material also
appeared in brochures that were handed out in public places, bearing the Hakol
Hayehudi logo. The inciting material has still not been removed from the
website. One of the items in question is an article called “mutual
responsibility” written by Elitzur, one of the authors of Torat Hamelech.

Attorney Yuval Roitman from the State Prosecution's division
dealing with High Court cases says that a final decision has yet to be made
regarding Elitzur’s prosecution. Roitman tried to justify the Attorney
general’s decision to close the file against the book’s authors and the
approbation granters, defending the lenient interpretations given after reading
this book.

“I assume that your honors have read or will read the book
in its entirety," Roitman said. "The picture that emerges from such
reading is different than the impressions obtained only by hearing a handful of
quotes. One should read the whole book in order to understand the context in
which it was written. It is difficult to counter this context in a legal
argument.

It does not deal with concrete issues connected to Palestinians or
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We have to view this through the lens of
legal criminality. When I read the book I cannot ignore the fact that the book
deals with issues of Jewish religious law without expressly saying that the
term "non-Jews" refers to the Arab populace. Before laying charges we
must be certain beyond reasonable doubt that what is written supports such a
claim.”

Justice Edna Arbel replied that “the issue is not what the
writer intended but what the reader understands.”

In May 2012 the state prosecutor decided to close the case
against Shapira and Elitzur, as well as Lior and Ginsburg, due to lack of
evidence. The book, published in 2009, deals with the issue of when Jewish law
permits the killing of a non-Jew.

A letter sent by Assistant State Prosecutor
Shlomi Abramson to petitioners stated that “the attorney general has decided to
close the cases due to lack of evidence that would meet the high standards of a
criminal court. Weinstein believes that the content of the book should be
condemned and reviled, but this should be done in the court of public opinion,
as indeed happened when the book was released.”